Eat Well as You Age

As we grow old, eating well can help improve our mental sharpness, boost our energy levels, and increase our resistance to illness. These senior diet and nutrition tips can help you understand how eating well can positively impact your lifestyle.

The benefits of healthy eating

Healthy eating is very important at every age, but becomes even more important as we reach midlife and beyond. Keeping your body healthy as well as eating good can also be a key to positive outlook and staying emotionally balanced life. But healthy eating doesn’t always have to be about dieting and sacrifice. Rather, it is all about enjoying fresh, tasty food, wholesome ingredients, and eating.

No matter what your age or your previous eating habits are, it’s never too late to change your diet and improve the way you live and eat. Improving your diet can ultimately help you to:

Live longer and stronger: Good nutrition can boost your immunity, fight illness-causing toxins, keep your weight in check, and reduce the risk of heart diseases, stroke, high blood pressure, type-2 diabetes, bone loss, and cancer. Along with physical activity, a balanced and healthy diet can contribute to an enhanced independence as you grow.

Sharpen your mind. People who eat fruits, leafy veggies, and fish and nuts packed with omega-3 fatty acids may improve focus and decrease their risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Antioxidant-rich foods like green tea may also enhance memory and mental alertness as you enter age old.

Feel better. Wholesome meals can increase your energy and help you look even better, resulting in a boost to your mood and self-esteem. When your body feels good, you feel happier inside and out, it is all connected.

Healthy eating is more than just eating food

Eating well is more than just the quality and variety of your food you eat. It is also about the pleasure of eating with friends and families. Sharing your food with others can be as important as including vitamins to your diet. A social atmosphere while eating stimulates your mind, makes your meals more enjoyable, and can help you stick to your healthy eating plans.

Even if you are living alone, you can make your healthy meals more pleasurable by:

Shopping with friends and family: Shopping with a friend or a family member can give you a chance to catch up without falling behind on your chores. It’s also a great way to share new meal ideas and healthy recipes.

Cook food with others: Invite a friend over to share cooking responsibilities—one prepares the ingredients, the other cook them. Cooking with others can be a fun way to deepen your healthy eating habits and enjoying it, and splitting costs can make it cheaper for both of you.

Making your mealtimes a social experience: The simple act of talking to a friend or loved one over the dinner table can play a big role in releasing stress and boosting your mood. Gather the family together regularly and stay up to date on everyone’s lives and routines. Invite a friend, coworker, or a neighbor over for a chit chat with food session.

Create a healthy senior diet

The key to a healthy eating is to focus on the whole, minimally processed food that your body needs as you grow old, food that is as close to its natural form as possible. Our bodies respond differently to different foods we eat, depending on genetics and other health factors associated with those foods, so finding the healthy diet that works best for you may take some experimentation. Following tips are a good way to start healthy eating:

Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables: Break the apple and banana headache and go for color-rich fruits like berries or melons. Aim for 2-3 servings per day. When it comes to veggies, choose antioxidant-rich leafy greens, such as kale, spinach, and broccoli along with  colorful vegetables such as carrots and squash. Make veggies more delicious by drizzling them with olive oil, sprinkling with cheese, or frying with garlic or chili flakes.

Choose calcium for bones and teeth health: Maintaining bones and teeth health as you age depends on satisfactory calcium intake to prevent osteoporosis and bone fractures or teeth damage. Good sources of calcium include cheese, milk, yogurt or non-dairy sources such as broccoli, tofu, almonds, and kale.

Go “good fat” rather than “no fat”: Rather than trying to cut out fat from your diet completely, focus on enjoying healthy fats, such as omega-3s—that may protect your body against diseases and support your mood and brain function.

Balance your sources of proteins: As you age, eating enough high-quality proteins my be important to improve your mood, boost your resistance to stress, anxiety, and depression, and even help you think more straight. However, eating too much protein from processed meat such as hot dogs and bacon can increase your risk of heart diseases, cancer, and other health problems. Change your sources of protein regularly instead of relying on just red meat by including more fish, beans, peas, eggs, nuts, and seeds in your diet.

Adding more fiber in your diet: Dietary fiber can do so much more than keeping your health regular. It can lower the risk for heart diseases, diabetese, and stroke, improve the skin health, and help you to lose weight fast. As you age, your digestion becomes slow and less efficient, so it is important to include enough fiber in your diet to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Women over 50 should always aim to consume at least 21 grams of fiber each day, men over 50 should consume at least 30 grams a day. Unfortunately, most of us are not getting even half of these amounts.

Let’s focus on carbs: Choosing whole grains over processed white flour for more nutrients and fiber and cut down on sugar and refined carbs could be significantly beneficial for your health. While our senses of taste and smell diminish as we grow, we keep the ability to differentiate sweet tastes the longest, leading many older people to consume more sugary items and refined carbs than healthy carbs.